The present invention relates to a device for promoting health by thermally stimulating the autonomic nervous system.
As is well known in the oriental medical world, that acupuncture and moxibustion are very effective in promoting health and in curing muscular pains and mental disorders by giving stimulation to the autonomic nervous system, whereby internal endocritic secretion is promoted and visceral organs are activated, since these are governed by the autonomic nervous system. Although these methods are known to be very effective, special skills are required in the practice of acupuncture, and a knowledge of the exact positions for application is also necessary in both acupuncture and moxibustion. While the application of acupuncture is too difficult to be done at home owing to the special skills required, moxibustion can be applied comparatively easily when the points of application on the body surface are taught by men skilled in the art. Therefore, moxibustion has long been adopted as a home method for promoting health and for curing disorders.
However, moxibustion produces artificial burns at the points of application on the skin, and although the burn is effective in producing a comparatively long-lasting effect, it also leaves scars on the skin, which is an apparent defect of the method. Therefore, some improved methods for moxibustion have been devised such as the so-called "Onkyu," i.e., mild moxibustion, in which a garlic slice or others is made between the moxa and skin, or the burning moxa is removed from the skin before the fire in the moxa reaches the skin and is replaced by using a new one during repeated application.
Such a mild moxibustion method is also found to be as effective as the conventional moxibustion methods, although the former requires more applications.
In recent years, some electric heaters have become available in the market which use no moxa but only transfer heat to the points of moxibustion. These are also found to be effective as devices for stimulating the autonomic nervous system. These electric heaters usually comprise an electric resistance heater and metal gear wheels at the top part of the device, and the heat evolved in the heater is conducted to the gears and to the skin therefrom. However, although the current passed to the electric heater can be controlled by a rheostat, it is dfficult to keep the temperature not too high, and the danger of producing burns on the skin and the fear of producing pain by the too high temperature reached due to the bad control of current are unavoidable. The metal gear wheels at the top part of the device enable it to travel on the skin by their rotation with the transversal movement of the device on the skin, but longitudinal movement can not be effected. The teeth of the gears serve to facilitate the rotation, and also, to reduce the surface area of contact of save the amount of heat transferred to the skin even when it is at too high a temperature. This reduced area of contact of gears reduces the chance of their contacting the spots for moxibustion, which are considered to have only the size of approximately 1 to 2 mm in diameter, and the effectiveness of the device is reduced by such reduction in the chance of contact of the gear teeth to the spots. Owing to such defects as described above, the electric devices are not yet widely used in home as health promoting devices.